Mourning
by MobBob
Summary: After her Grandma dies, Beca must go to her house to sort through her things. Chloe tags along to try to make her feel better. Includes Lindsay from "Beca's Cousin".
1. Chapter 1

Beca, Chloe, Stacie, and Amy were all sitting down at their booth at the diner. Stacie turned to Amy who was drinking her coffee. "Uh Amy, have you ever had coffee before?"

"Of course I have," said Amy. "What, do you think we don't have coffee in Australia? Do you think we're some third world country?"

"No," said Stacie. "At least I think it's not. Geography isn't my strong suit, but that's not important. That's you're third cup of coffee and we haven't even ordered our food."

"Yeah," said Beca. "Maybe you should slow down."

"I'm fine," said Amy as she finished her cup of coffee. "I usually have to drink eight cups of coffee before I start my day."

"Really?" said Beca. "Your throat has to be covered in third degree burns by now."

Chloe rested her head on Beca's shoulder, who shook her off. "So what are you thinking of getting?"

"I don't know," said Beca, who was thumbing through her menu. "Did you know they have French toast sandwiches?"

"French toast sandwiches?" said Chloe.

"Yeah," said Beca. "They use French toast as the bread and fill it up with bacon and eggs and stuff like that."

"Sounds delicious." Chloe tried putting her arm around Beca, who brushed her off again. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm doing good," said Beca.

"You're so tough," said Chloe. "But it's okay. You can open with me."

"I'm fine," said Beca. "I knew she was going to go and I was prepared when I got the news. But thanks."

"It's what I do," said Chloe.

At that time their waitress arrived and gave Amy her fourth cup of coffee. "So, do you guys know what you want?"

"I think so." Chloe looked to the rest of the group. "Right?"

Everyone nodded in agreement. The waitress pulled out her notepad and turned to Amy. "Um yes, is the two stack pancake the highest stack you guys go here?"

"Um...I think so," said the waitress. "You could always order two two stacks and put them together."

"Well I guess it'll have to do." Amy handed the waitress her menu.

The waitress turned to Stacie. "Can I have the oatmeal? Trying to watch my weight."

"Good idea," said Chloe.

"And do you want that with brown sugar?" said the waitress.

"Yes," said Stacie. "Also, it says I can have chocolate chips in it."

"Okay yeah. One bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and chocolate chips." The waitress wrote down her order and turned to Chloe. "And what do you want?"

"Can I have the bacon and eggs?" said Chloe.

"Sure," said the waitress, who turned to Beca. "And you?"

"Can I have the Chicago double decker with melted cheese?" said Beca.

"Good choice," said the waitress. "And would you like that with hash browns?"

"Oh definitely," said Beca.

The waitress was about to leave when Beca tugged on her shirt. The waitress turned around. "Anything else."

Chloe leaned in and whispered to the waitress. "Hey, the girl sitting behind me just lost her grandmother."

"Oh that's so sad," said the waitress.

"Yeah," said Chloe. "Do you guys give free stuff for deaths in the family?"

"Not really," said the waitress.

"Oh come on," said Chloe.

The waitress thought for a moment. "I could sneak you guys some free straws. Just between you and me."

"Great." Chloe went back to her seat.

"Hey, you know we can hear you?" said Beca.

"Sorry," said Chloe. "But I was thinking that you really need a pick me up."

"Speaking of pick me ups," said Amy. "I need another refill."

"I don't need any free straws," said Beca.

"Are you sure?" said Chloe.

"I'm sure," said Beca.

"Okay." Soon their food arrived along with the free straws. The waitress gave Chloe a wink, filled Amy's cup, and went to her next table. The group began eating their food in silence, which was broken by Beca. "So she must have meant a lot to you?"

"My Grandma?" said Beca through a mouthful of French toast and melted cheese.

"Yeah," said Chloe. "Who else would I be talking about?"

"I guess so," said Beca. "I'd always visit her house each summer."

"That must have been fun," said Chloe. "Do you have any fun stories about those times?"

Beca put down her sandwich. "I remember one time, when I was nine, I wanted to watch Disney Channel, but we didn't have cable. So Grandma told me to sneak into the neighbors house and steal their cable."

Chloe laughed. "She was joking, right?"

Beca shook her head. "The guy was home and he called the cops. Grandma tried to pin the blame on me. She told the cops I was out of control and it would do me some good to spend some time in jail."

Chloe gave Beca a awkward look. "I'm sure she was joking."

"Well the cops didn't think she was," said Beca. "I wasn't even ten and I already had a record."

Chloe tried to think of something to say. She turned her attention to Amy. "Amy, maybe you should slow down? You're practically scarfing down your food."

"I'm fine," said Amy, syrup dripping down her chin. "Just mind your own business."

* * *

Beca and Chloe leaned against the car. After they left the diner, Amy had began feeling sick, likely do to the four pancakes and ten cups of coffee she had downed. Beca pulled over to a forested area by the highway to let Amy puke out her breakfast. "Jesus. How much did she eat?"

"You were there with me," said Beca.

"I didn't think it was possible to fit that much into one stomach," said Chloe.

"Well that's Amy for you," said Beca.

Chloe nodded. "You know, if you ignore the sounds of Amy vomiting, this is actually a pretty nice place."

"Yeah," said Beca. "I think this is where Grandma left me that one time."

"Oh, your Grandma took you here," said Chloe. "What a coincidence. It's almost poetic if you think about it. Did you go on a hike or something like that?"

"No, she left me here," said Beca.

Chloe gave Beca a puzzled look. "I don't think I understand? Why did she leave you here?"

"We were in the car and I kept fighting with my cousin Lindsay," said Beca. "So she said that if we didn't stop fighting, she'd throw us out of the car and we'd have to walk home."

"I get it," said Chloe. "She was just messing with you to get you to behave. She didn't actually mean she was going to leave you in the forest."

Beca nervously shifted from side to side, pretending to scratch something on her elbow. "Well actually, she did. She stopped the car, made us get out, and drove off."

"And she instantly did a U turn and came back," said Chloe.

"Nope," said Beca. "We ended up spending hours in the woods with the mosquitos, the poison ivy, and those."

Beca pointed to a sign that said " **Bear Xing** " in big bold letters. The color instantly drained from Chloe's face. She turned to Amy, who was still vomiting in the woods. "Amy, are you done yet?"

"No," said Amy. "I've still got some stomach contents to expel."

"Well can you hurry it up?" said Chloe.

* * *

They finally reached Beca's Grandma's house. Outside was a red pick up truck. Beca knew this was Lindsay's car. "I see Lindsay's already here."

Sure enough, Lindsay came out of the house carrying a few boxes and an ashtray. "Hey Becks. I see you've got here just in time to avoid all the heavy lifting."

"Sorry," said Beca. "We had to stop."

"Well I've left you the attic and I already got the stuff Grandma left me." Lindsay lifted up the ashtray, which had a Swastika on it. "Grandpa got this during World War Two."

"Oh, so did he take it off a Nazi soldier?" said Amy.

"Yeah. That's exactly how it happened." Lindsay turned to Beca. "I put the stuff she left you on the table. FYI, she left you the clown clock."

"Great." Beca grit her teeth as she went inside.

Chloe tapped Lindsay on the shoulder. "What's the clown clock? Is that like some family heirloom."

"No," said Lindsay. "It's a novelty clock Grandma got at an airport gift shop. It's got a clown on the face and balloon animals for hands."

"Sounds cute," said Chloe.

"I don't think cute is the right word," said Lindsay. "More like terrifying. Whenever we'd visit, she'd make sure it was in Becks room. Gave her nightmares."

"Jesus," said Chloe.

"Yeah," said Lindsay.

"You know, she probably didn't mean any harm," said Chloe. "She was probably just having fun and didn't realize how scared Beca was."

"I guess so," said Lindsay. "She always liked telling these ghost stories."

"Ghost stories can be so fun," said Chloe.

Lindsay smiled. "Yeah, I remember this one time she told me the attic was haunted. Some crazy coal miner who went insane and hanged himself in there. Then she asked me to clean the attic."

Chloe laughed. "She has some sense of humor."

"Then she locked me in there," said Lindsay.

"Well that's taking it a little far," said Chloe.

"She forgot about me and started watching TV. I was up there for hours with the spiders, and the rats, and Crazy Smith" Lindsay dropped the boxes and started taking sharp breaths.

Chloe took a step back. "Are you okay? God, I didn't mean to upset you."

Beca heard Lindsay freaking out and ran outside. "What happened?"

"I don't know," said Chloe. "She was telling me about this time she was locked in the attic and-"

"I see. I forgot to tell you, Lindsay's kinda sensitive to the attic ever since the incident. We try not to bring it up." Beca put her arm around Lindsay. "Calm down Lindsay, it's okay."

Lindsay just stared blankly at Beca. "Crazy Smith Becks. Remember Crazy Smith?"

"Crazy Smith isn't real." Beca turned to Chloe. "Why don't you go inside while I calm her down."

"Okay." Chloe did what she was told and went inside along with Stacie and Amy. She went to the kitchen table, where she saw the stuff Beca's grandma had left her. There was a tea set dating to before the American Revolution and a taxidermy alligator, which Beca was scared of owing to the time that her Grandma told her that the alligator's ghost still wanted revenge. There was also a game of sorry. Beca had left it here when she was seven and Grandma Mitchell had just gotten around to giving it back. Soon, Beca and Lindsay came in and they began going through the rest of Grandma Mitchell's stuff.

Most of the valuable stuff was already packed by Lindsay. All that remained were some cheap novelty items and some old magazines. During the cleaning, Amy opened up the cookie jar, hoping to find something chocolate. Instead, she found Grandma Mitchell's secret stash of pornographic magazines. Lindsay and Beca both insisting on burning the magazines, but Stacie and Amy made an impassioned case for keeping them for posterity's sake. Eventually they won out and were allowed to divide the magazines up between themselves. They asked if Chloe wanted some, but she refused, in front of Beca at least. When she was out of earshot, Chloe asked Stacie to set aside a few magazines for her.

Soon, the house was empty. Everything that belonged to Grandma Mitchell had been packed into boxes or taken by her relatives. The only thing that wasn't sorted was an old photo album Chloe had found near Grandma Mitchell's favorite rocking chair. She handed it to Beca. "What do you want to do with this?"

"Put it in the box with the other photo albums," said Beca.

"Are you sure?" said Chloe. "You don't want to look through it first?"

"Alright." Beca shrugged and opened the album to a picture of a smiling little girl. "That's me."

"You look like you're having fun," said Chloe.

"Yeah," said Beca. "That's from the time we went to the lake."

"You must've had a blast," said Chloe as she put her arm around Beca.

"I did," said Beca. "At least until I found out the lake was full of leaches."

"Oh." Chloe took her arm off of Beca, who continued to flip through the photo album. She stopped at a picture of her and Lindsay playing poker with their Grandma. "What's the story behind that?"

"Grandma wanted to teach us to play poker," said Beca. "She made us swear not to tell our parents."

"That's how the best stories always start," said Chloe.

"Yeah, she got us to bet away our allowances," said Beca.

Chloe sighed. "At least tell me she gave it back."

"She didn't give it back," said Beca.

"Oh god," said Chloe.

Beca flipped through the album some more. She found a picture of her in the hospital with a cast. "Do you want to know how that happened?"

"No." Chloe went to take the album away from Beca. "Here, let me pack it up."

Beca pulled the album away from Chloe. "No, I want to keep it."

"Seriously?" said Chloe. "It's just a reminder of how horrible your Grandma was to you."

"I know," said Beca. "But at least it's honest. Grandma was horrible to me. She scarred me with her combination negligence, abuse, and being an all around shitty person. I don't want to whitewash that. I feel it's much more respectful to her memory to acknowledge who she was as opposed to pretending she was something she wasn't."

Chloe struggled to look for the right word to say. "Wow that's really..."

"Messed up," said Beca.

"I think I would have gone with deep," said Chloe. "But whatever you say."

Beca thumbed through the album some more. "I think messed up is the only way you can describe my Grandma."

They did one last look through the house, searching for things they missed. Eventually, when it was clear that they'd sorted through everything, they went to leave. Before they left, Beca stopped for a moment. Chloe turned to her. "What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing," said Beca. "It's just, I think I'm going to miss this place."

"Same here," said Lindsay.

"I just can't believe that she's gone," said Beca.

Chloe grabbed Beca's hand. "You've still got us."

Beca smiled. "I know."


	2. Epilogue

As Lindsay pulled out of the driveway, Stacie waved goodbye and made kissy faces at her. Beca, who was making sure the boxes were safely secured in the back of her car, rolled her eyes. "Are you still pretending that you two slept together?"

Stacie gave Beca a playful smirk. "Who says we're pretending?"

Beca grit her teeth. She closed the back of her car and turned to Chloe. "All ready to go?"

"Yep," said Beca. "Hey before we go, do you have some chap stick I can borrow? I left mine at home and my lips are all dry now."

"Sure I can let you have my chap stick. It should be in here somewhere." Chloe pulled out her purse and began rummaging through it. "Found it. Here you..."

As Chloe went to hand Beca the chap stick when a magazine fell out of her purse. Not just any magazine. One of the playgirls that Grandma Mitchell had kept in her cookie jar. Beca stared at the magazine with a look of horror on her face. Chloe could see her face contort as she tried to deal with the reminder of her Grandma's sexuality. Finally Beca spoke. "It's so weird that kept all the Highlights for Kids magazines in her cookie jar."

Chloe took a moment to catch on. "What are you...oh. Yeah, she must have kept them for you guys."

"Yeah let's go with that," said Beca.

"Is it okay if I take one?" said Chloe. "Always been a fan."

"Yeah of course. Grandma probably wouldn't mind." Beca got into the car. "Ready to go?"

"Sure, nothing left to do here." Chloe picked up her magazine and got into the car after Beca. They drove away, having reached an understanding that only a repressed memory can bring.


End file.
